


Waiting Rooms

by Khthon



Series: Metall/u/rgy [39]
Category: Metall/u/rgy
Genre: Chance Meetings, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-24
Updated: 2016-10-24
Packaged: 2018-08-24 10:10:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8368351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khthon/pseuds/Khthon
Summary: Steel runs into an unusual woman. Frequently.





	

##### The First Encounter

She always saw the same woman whenever she was in the waiting room. It had been a few weeks and she had been waiting for the other woman to notice her but she was always preoccupied--whether it be with overlooking papers, something important that must've been work related, she figured, or reading up on the newest bestseller but in this case she was reading a magazine. _Polymerization_ to be exact. The older woman seemed rather particular to it out of all the other subscriptions available to them, and as it happened to be so was Steel. If she had arrived earlier she would've taken it up first.

“How's the cover article?” Steel questioned. The woman was seated four seats away, Steel never let herself sit right next to her but she was closer than sitting across the room. They were close enough for conversation, at least. Or at least she hoped.

“Terrible,” the woman answered distantly, not taking her eyes off the magazine before continuing, “the writer...could’ve done a much better job.”

“That’s unfortunate,” murmured Steel, waiting to see if she would elaborate on the point but never did. The older woman happened to be the only other person in the room, and even without other people around she felt under pressure.

Steel watched as the older woman tossed the magazine back onto the table with a huff. Going off that and her response, Steel gathered that she’d have to find another way to keep herself occupied.

**\---------------------------------------------------------------------**

##### Posing a Question

“Are they any good?” A voice close to Steel wondered, causing her to look up from _Metalworkers Weekly_.

“Excuse me?” It wasn't that Steel hadn't heard, it was more she didn't think the other woman was talking to her. But then again it was only them in the waiting room. _Again._

“The band on your shirt...Are they any good?” the woman ventured.

Rough. That was the first thing that popped into Steel’s mind upon hearing the older woman’s question a second time. The older woman’s voice was a bit rough.

“Yeah, I like them. Their concerts are pretty nice, too,” she answered, a bit guarded. She was a little nervous that the woman had started the conversation this time around.

Now that she thought about it, the roughness reminded Steel of her own voice...or what people had told her about it

“Have you heard of Thunder Gods? Their concerts are always good.”

Now that caused her eyebrows to rise in surprise. Someone else liked Thunder Gods? Or actually heard about them?

“Well...” Steel ventured as she closed the magazine page on metalworking, “I’ve never had the opportunity to see Thunder Gods live but Pluton’s Favoured are definitely an experience live. If they're anything similar I'm sure I'd love them just as much.”

Steel smiled lightly as she remembered going with her Mom and Terne to one of their concerts. It had been one of her favorite birthdays. “If symphonic metal doesn’t bother you then they’re worth seeing live,” Steel gushed with excitement as more of the concert came back to her mind. Noticing the look the older woman gave her, Steel took it as a cue to continue with her answer.

“Sorry. I can only imagine how fun Thunder Gods live are, the Favoured love to play off their fans’ energy during a concert. The concert I was at almost got shut down,” she remarked with a smirk. She opened up easily when it came to music. The older woman chuckled as Steel began to talk more about the concerts and bands and brag about other close encounters.

“Those are usually the best type of concerts. It’s not real fun unless there’s a risk of being shut down,” the woman commented, "There was this one time a friend and I..." Steel found herself liking the woman’s laugh as they began to talk about music tastes and experiences.

**\---------------------------------------------------------**

##### Catching Up

“Hey, I didn't see you at the concert. Did something come up or did I just miss you?”

Steel’s head whipped up from the sketch she was working on as the older woman entered Steel's waiting room. Well, it wasn't only Steel's, there had always been that rather quiet receptionist. Except she wasn't quiet when she asked them to keep their voices down when they start singing.

“Oh Ferra, I am so sorry,” Steel started to apologize, “I had to redo a school project because something happened with it.” She felt awful. Ferra wasn’t just the older woman she waited with in the waiting room anymore.

She was Steel’s friend.

“No need to be sorry,” Ferra reassured her with a tired smile, “I know what it’s like to get unexpected work shoved onto you.”

Steel closed her sketch book, and turned her complete attention to her friend and finally noticed how tired her friend usually looked.

“You are able to at least take breaks from it, right?” Ferra continued. It looked as if Ferra only got sleep every three days.

“Yeah, the concert was going to be a break,” Steel grumbled as she remembered what happened, “Unfortunately, the part I had to redo took longer than expected.”

Steel was tempted to ask Ferra if everything was okay. They talked a lot about shared interests and for Steel parts of her personal life, but she never asked about Ferra's or heard her share her story. Ultimately she decided against it.

“Did you at least enjoy the concert?” was what she asked instead. After all, while Ferra was her friend; she was an adult, and they only ran into each other in the waiting room.

“It was as good as you first told me. They were a blast live and I was lucky enough to hear them sing Erebus.”

Steel doubted Ferra would like it if some child asked about her private life.

“Did they really? Man, now I wish I had gone,” Steel groused lightly, “Erebus is their second best song. What else did they play?” Better to keep the conversation to topics in which they shared interests.

**\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

##### Going Home

Steel was sure she was doing a good job of keeping her face straight. It wouldn’t do any good if she caused Ferra to worry about her.

“So, I hear Thunder Gods are going to be holding a concert soon...” Ferra directed the topic to upcoming events once again with a tired smirk, “Are you thinking of going? I hear they're pretty good.”

Steel didn't want to have Ferra worrying about her while she worried about the reason why her friend looked like she was ready to pass out at any moment.

_Best to avoid that._

“I will definitely try, Ferra. Nothing is happening that week so I should be free,” Steel confided. She wondered if she would run into her friend there.

Would Ferra act any different if they did run into each other?

“Nice. Hopefully I’m as lucky as you,” Ferra murmured as one of her tired smiles worked its way onto her face. Steel hoped Ferra would still act like her friend if they met up outside the waiting room. “Maybe we’ll even run into each other this time.”

Steel would like that. She would like that quite a bit.

She was just about to suggest meeting up at a nearby café, during the concert night that is, when the other waiting room door opened. Vanadium poked her head into the waiting room and met Steel’s eyes.

“Hey Steel, I gotta shift our plans later into the week. I just got a house call that I gotta go to after I finish up here,” Vanadium apologized.

Vanadium was the reason why Steel was always in the waiting room at this time.

This time however, she was the reason behind Steel going back on her thoughts about meeting up with Ferra to enter the concert together. It also sounded a lot more like a date, now that she thought about it some more.

“Alright, that's fine, thanks for telling me, Vandi.” Steel turned back to look at Ferra. Who seemed to be stunned about something, if Steel was reading her expression right.

“Sorry for being abrupt, Ferra, but I gotta go do some errands since my plans changed,” Steel lamented while she gathered her things.  
She was never quite sure of Ferra’s expression but the blank eyes read as stunned.

“Catch you during the concert, yeah? Hopefully?” Steel concluded as she made her way to the waiting room’s exit and looked back to see if her friend answered.

A robotic nod was all the answer she received from her friend... A friend who now looked worse than she did when Steel first saw her earlier. But she didn't dwell on that thought, giving one final wave to Ferra and Vanadium, Steel left the waiting room and headed home.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------  
Unknown to Steel, her friend Ferra was a little more than stunned. She was actually overwhelmed. Overwhelmed by something she failed to notice, nothing done by her little waiting room frien-

_No, her name is Steel,_ Ferra corrected her thoughts

Hearing a cough at the edge of her awareness, Ferra slowly turned her head to the source of the cough and blankly stared at Vanadium. Unnerved a little by the stare Vanadium proceeded as usual.

“I’m sorry about that Iron, but I’m ready fo-"

“Apologies Miss, but can you reschedule my appointment for two weeks from now?” Ferra quietly interjected. Receiving a nod, Ferra slowly collected her things and made her way to the exit.

“Again, I’m sorry for the abruptness Ms.Vanadium,” Ferra admitted before opening the door and leaving.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my beta reader, Rd.


End file.
